Jennifer Fair Stewart

author of Marginalia: An Interactive Book of Hours (The Orchard Street Press)Her poetry has won multiple awards, including the 2024 Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award, and has appeared or is forthcoming in Heart of Flesh, The Orchards, Quiet Diamonds, Crescendo, Trampoline, Plough, Bacopa, Abraxas, & Relief.She grew up running wild across midwestern acres, sojourned in cities, and now runs semi-respectably through southwestern desert suburbs. She worked as a teacher for over twenty years, in addition to stints as a sales clerk, house cleaner, library assistant, janitor, secretary, and retreat speaker. As a child, she won her elementary school’s annual competition for the Young Authors Conference twice and has been writing off & on ever since.

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Marginalia:
An Interactive Book of Hours

A debut poetry collection from The Orchard Street Press, 2024"The poems in Marginalia are memorable and precise, enhancing, not competing with, Stewart’s deeply contemplative project. Perhaps the loudest praise I could give this collection is that it made me ache for my own transformation even as it voiced my longing for a divine presence to 'please/ just be with us in this narrow, ribcaged space.'"
--Susanna Childress: DuMez Associate Professor of English at Hope College; author of the poetry volumes Jagged with Love and Entering the House of Awe"Jennifer Stewart creates a weave of sumptuous language that reflects the abundance encountered in the ordinary and extraordinary. With poems ranging from bouts of heart-heaviness to exultations in nature's embrace, she invites one to explore the profundities of human existence. These poems are like a warm bath for any soul attuned to mystery, an immersion in the depths of poetic expression."
--Albert Haley: Professor Emeritus of Language and Literature at Abilene Christian University; 2007 Rattle Poetry Prize Winner"I love these poems. They tell stories with vivid images of real and broken people, always colored by the prism of faith. They bring me into that other dimension of light in which we see light."
--Gerald McDermott: retired Chair of Anglican Divinity at Beeson Divinity School; author of A New History of Redemption: The Work of Jesus the Messiah through the Millennia (Baker Academic)

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Links to Poems

These poems have been published in various journals, and most are free to read online."Blackberry Hush in Memory Lane" is the winner of the 2024 Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award with Plough.Enjoy!

• "Blackberry..." Prize Winner
• "Blackberry..." Award Ceremony Video
• "Ekphrastic High..." p.156
• "Yachats" p.28-29
• "Kingdom of God..." p.17-19 Prize Winner
• "Vincent's Plane Trees" p.106
• "Bodie Island Lighthouse"
• "Salvage" & "13th Station"
• "November Road"
• "There's Not Enough Blood in My Veins"
• "Spellbound"
• "Evensong..." p.50-51

Coming Soon!

Live Poetry Readings: Jennifer will be reading from her new book as follows:
1-11-25 Seven and One Books, Abilene, TX, 5 pm
6-24-25 All Saints Anglican, Charlottesville, VALinks: More poems & an essay about her writing process have all been accepted for publication. Links will be provided as they become available.